If you have, as Junior Brown sang, spent “too many nights in a roadhouse,” you can now get your fill of country music and cold drinks during daylight hours on Thursdays at Fassler Hall. Jacob Tovar has set up weekly shop with his Honky Tonk Happy Hour, a three-hour run of classic country and like-minded originals performed by Tovar, guitarist Johnny Mullenax, and a rhythm section that may change depending on who’s got what gigs that day (for most shows, it’s drummer Paddy Ryan and bassist Paul Wilkes, and on this particular night, Josh Raymer filled in on drums and Harvey Crowder on bass).
The residency is a continuation of its debut in July. Six weeks in, it was clear from the half-full hall that continued to get more crowded as the evening went on — and skew younger and rowdier — that people are showing up to this show on purpose, not just getting surprised by it when they come in for beer and pretzels.
This makes sense, because if Jacob Tovar stepped onstage without a band or even a guitar or microphone and just sang for three hours straight, people should still want to listen. If someone’s going to faithfully perform songs made famous by Ray Price and Hank Williams, it’s important to do them justice, and Tovar is one of the best singers around: strong, clear, pure country crooning. I wrote a brief review of his debut album in 2015 and called his vocal delivery “devastatingly charming.” I stand by it; it has gotten no worse with age.
His voice, especially paired with Mullenax’s pitch-perfect Telecaster solos, is so specifically good for this type of music that without a canonical knowledge of country or familiarity with Tovar’s songwriting, it’s difficult in this environment to distinguish which of the band’s tracks are originals and which are plucked from decades ago. (One notable exception from the Aug. 17 show was a cover of George Michael’s “Faith” that came across profoundly weird but that the crowd loved anyway.)
I do think Tovar has some bona fide hits in his own songbook, and he played a couple of them, including “One Track Minded Baby,” which is sort of funny if you think it’s about a woman and extremely funny if you think it’s about an actual baby. There’s also crowd-favorite self-awareness anthem “Tips and Beer,” which name-drops some of the honky tonk heroes whose songs he covers, blaming them for his wayward musical career choices.
Unless you’re Springsteen or Swift, a three-hour show is a straight-up grind, so the format of this residency skews extra casual even versus a normal headlining bar gig. Imagine the 6 p.m. start time as more of a loose suggestion and maybe use the hefty intermission to run an errand or two. Also, I don’t know the psychological correlation between light levels and noise, but for an early show, the house sound felt a bit too loud, keeping chatting with your friends at a respectful volume off the table, if that’s your happy hour thing.
But the show is free, so those are the tiniest of complaints. If you haven’t seen Jacob Tovar before but love classic country music (or German food or going to bed early), stopping by this Fassler residency is a no-brainer.
Bring cash for the tip jar. The band is all set on the beer.
Next from Becky: Hodges Bend Jazz Night
